Jorge Silva and Ivan Lubysh Kirdey

BAKHMUT, Ukraine (Reuters – Bakhmut’s hospital was never designed to take in ambulances bringing injured and traumatized soldiers from Europe’s most dangerous battlefield.

The volunteer paramedics did not expect to, four months earlier, be rushing back and forth between the front lines of a fierce tank battle.

I have never witnessed so much human suffering before. Elena Bulakhtina, an American-born Canadian physician, said that the suffering was unnecessary. She joined the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital as a paramedic team dedicated to providing emergency medical care at the front lines.

Its primary task is now to stabilize the wounded in the Luhansk area battle zone. They can then be transported to more hospitals in west Ukraine.

She said that “any Russian can help Ukraine in a concrete way, and not just by sitting on Facebook (NASDAQ):…should do something.”

Bulakhtina can travel to Ukraine with her Canadian passport. This is something she wouldn’t be allowed to do as a Russian citizen.

Svitlana Drubenko was her boss. She said that she wondered how many casualties the war would cause when it began. It is now that I realize the number of deaths in war are staggering. People are still dying everywhere.

Ukraine has been stretched to their limits by the sheer size of its frontline, which stretches over hundreds of kilometers.

Many of the second-hand German and Polish ambulances that arrive at the hospital are used. The emergency entry is just a few steps away. A wooden door, used as a stretcher and covered in blood lies just a little ways from it.

Igor said, “We have come from hell.” He was an exhausted, mud-covered soldier who joined in the fight just days after February’s invasion. He’s one of a number of soldiers suffering from shell-shock or post-traumatic stress disorder.

He stated that they attacked us with all their weapons – airplanes and artillery. There was also shelling every day. We fought for six days. Popasna was completely destroyed.”

Russia deployed thousands of troops to Ukraine in a “special operation” on February 24, which it described as a demilitarization and denazification of its south-eastern neighbour. Ukraine and its allies deny that it is a pretext for war of conquest.

Alessandro is another soldier in the group and uses the time to videochat with his granddaughter who managed to escape to Poland. “My family is safe here while we’re going through this.”

Two combatants need to be evacuated by one ambulance in an area that usually accommodates only one person. One of the victims has sustained a shrapnel wound to his spine. Although his life isn’t in danger, doctors warn that he might lose the ability to move his arms or legs.

Aleksandra Pohranychna, a 20-year old volunteer from Bakhmut does not have an ambulance. She lives about 70km (44 miles), northwest of Bakhmut.

As the paramedic for her unit, she is the sole one and only. She waits in Sviatohirsk while soldiers bring her to the front.

She says, “I joined and helped.” It is necessary that we do this.

Her father, a western Ukrainian man from Lviv, gifted her enough money to pay for personal protection gear. However her mother is no longer available to talk to her.

She has on her arm a tattoo with the Ukrainian coat-of-arms and a quote from Lesya Ukrainka.

The text reads, “I have something in my heart that will never be lost.”